School lunch box suggestions pls

OK DS is FYOS next year. Can I have suggestions on the best brand/type of lunchbox to buy him? I saw some groovy looking Sistema boxes with lots of compartments and a bottle but I could imagine cleaning it would be irritating as the lids to all compartments dont come completely off.What happened to the colourful Decor boxes we had as kids?

DD is in 2012 FYOS and we never ended up using her compartmented systema lunch box, was too bulky in the communal prep fridge! We went with a barbie box, very basic but large enough for small morning tea and lunch (sandwich, fruit, cookies). Seems the other kids have same basic boxes too.

We started off with a sistema compartment lunchbox and it drove me nuts, we now have a smiggle insulated zip 'case' with a few small smash gel ice packs, it has been much better and fits so much stuff.

DS is FYOS 2013 and we have just bought the nude food lunch box with 3 separate compartments plus an extra snack set, smash drink bottle, gel packs and skin....he had to have the exact same thing that his big cousin who is 12 has!!!! Hero worship at hand!

We also had to buy a banana keeper because "I like bananas mummy but I don't like them smooshed" Made perfect sense to me!

I use one of the big cooler bags for my girls. Inside I use Tupperware sandwich keepers and a whole bunch of little containers (mainly decor or nude food) with an ice brick.. I also have the nude food lunch boxes with a compartment for sandwich/salad up one end and room for 2 little pots up the other. My girls are big eaters so we only use the old brightly coloured decor boxes for 1/2 day activities.

Find out if your child's school have 'rules'. We were asked to send recess and lunch in two separate containers as they took recess to another area to eat. So the mega compartment lunchboxes I'd bought were no good. Instead I use a cooler bag with the Sistema hinged lid boxes in them. They don't last very long but they are cheap. Unfortunately Woolies seems to have stopped stocking them and I've almost run out so I"ll have to change brands soon.

I second that you shouldn't buy any lunch boxes, special ones anyway, until you know how the school and teacher manage eating arrangments.

My kids' teachers have all done it slightly differently, we have fruito, recess and lunch. What works for us is having separate containers for each meal break, so it is flexible.

Fruito can either be brought into class separately and put on thier desk or on a shelf or kept in their bags, if they had their fruit in a big container then it would take up half the desk and probably end up open on th floor. Recess and lunch can be eaten at various different places and the containers either returned to thier bags or just piled near the door.

Given at our school recess is relatively short, my kids prefer to have something they can access and eat reall quick so they can go play quicker, so a separate container works well for that too.

We were lucky to have to have been given instructions by the school already....we have to have one piece of raw fruit in the front pocket of their school bag which is for fruit snack around 10am. They then need play lunch and lunch in seperate containers.

I bought Boxy lunch boxes this year for both kids. They have a divided section as well as two containers that slot in over the sandwich area to keep it together! They are large enough for a variety of foods, the containers are really easy to open but are watertight and they are really robust. They still look brand new even as we are nearing the end of Term 4.

We were lucky to have to have been given instructions by the school already....we have to have one piece of raw fruit in the front pocket of their school bag which is for fruit snack around 10am. They then need play lunch and lunch in seperate containers.

This. So DD's fruit snack goes in a little sistema container (I cut up an apple, she gets a quarter for fruit snack, a half at lunch and I eat the other quarter when I'm making it).

Her recess, generally either a muffin or a slice of cheese cut in 4 and crackers goes in one of these and her lunch (sandwich and 1/2 apple) goes in this

I have found wonderful lunchboxes and accessories at Daiso. I use a lunchbox from Daiso for my kids - it has 4 compartments so I put sandwiches in a couple of compartments and then fill the others with fruit and veg pieces. Hope that helps!

I use lock&lock containers. I have tried decor and sistema and a whole bunch of others but lock&lock do not leak at all. I have a whole variety of shapes and sizes depending on what I am adding to the lunch box that day. I then just add it all to a cool bag lunch box with an ice block.

I can even make salad and add balsamic vinegar dressing for my lunch and it survives the ride on the train to work. Would never buy a different brand again.

I have used a Laptop Lunch box for my little girl for the last 2 years and it's still in good enough shape to go for another. It's a bento style lunchbox which suits us really well as I dont like to pack pre-packaged foods.